


Out of the Mouths of Lizard-Babies

by phinnia



Series: Delta Quadrant Babies [5]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-26 07:58:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16677682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phinnia/pseuds/phinnia
Summary: Because writing is going very slowly on the other thing I'm working on, I wrote this.  :)   With real-live kitty cats, and Q, and spelling mistakes.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New second bit! That involves Tuvok babysitting the lizard-babies.

“Daddy?”  
  
Tom looked up from the conn report he was reading.   “Yes, Julia?”  
  
“I know what I want for my birthday.”  
  
“Okay.”   He turned and looked at his nearly four-year-old daughter.   Her hair was back in a braid (thanks to Harry) and her nails were polished (thanks to B’Elanna).   She was wearing a purple and pink dress with ruffles on it.   And shiny tap shoes (thanks to Kathryn, who liked to torture him every now and then).   Eventually she’d grow out of this princess thing, he hopes.   “What do you want for your birthday?”  
  
“Two things.”   She looked at him seriously.   “I want a kitty cat.  A real live kitty cat.”  
  
Tom choked.   “Oka - aay, that’s going to be kind of tough.   Not a lot of real live kitty cats out here.   What’s the other thing?”  
  
“I want you an’ Harry to get married an’ I wanna be the flower girl.   Shannie can be flower girl, too.”  
  
Tom almost fell out of his chair.   “Oh, sweetie.   Daddy’s not _really_ the marrying type.  Why can’t daddy make you a nice princess holoprogram?   With a castle!   A really nice castle!”  
  
“No!   I want a kitty, an’ I want you an’ Harry to get married.”   She stamps her foot.   “Or at least Harry to move in here an’ live with us.   That would be okay, I guess.   Why does he gotta live down the hall?”  
  
_So we can have somewhere to fuck when you guys are busy watching Flotter_ , Tom thinks, but he doesn’t actually say it.    
  
Then Harry comes in.     
  
“Harry!”  Julia runs over to him, tapping her shoes the whole way.  
  
“What is it, sweetie?”  
  
“I know what I want for my birthday!”  
  
Oh, God.   Tom buries his face in his conn report, praying Baytart has something good to say today.   Anything, really.   Aliens took him out of his body and made him scrub the bridge with Tom’s toothbrush.  Tuvok made a pass at him.  Anything.  
  
“What do you want, honey?”  Harry picks her up.  
  
“I want a real live kitty cat, an’ I want you and daddy to get married so Shannie an’ I can be flower girls!”  
  
Tom feels very much like getting a site-to-site transport out of here.   Anywhere else, really.   Sickbay, the hydroponics bay, any old passing planet, that would be fine.   He didn’t even care if it was a class M planet.     
  
“Oh, Julia, I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon.”   Harry puts her down.  
  
“But why, Harry?”  she whines.    
  
“Because your daddy’s not really the sort of person who gets married, that’s why.   Now, what do you want for dinner?   How about lasagna?”  
  
“Yeah, yeah.”     
  
Sadly, Baytart’s conn report is deadly dull today, and the man really neads to work on his spelling.   Tom decides to correct it and ponders giving it back full of the equivalent of red pen marks but he doubts that his subordinate would see the point.     
  
God, beta shift can _not_ be that boring.   Tom would have flown them into a neutron star just for the variety.       
  
“You do not spell nebula’ with two ‘b’s.”   he mutters under his breath.   “At least _I_ don’t.”  
  
Harry laughs.   “Pablo’s spelling again?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“Nebula is spelled ’n-e-b-u-l-a.’    Shannon says from where she’s looking at a book.  
  
“How did you get so smart?”   Harry says.  
  
“Seven taught me that word.   Borg are good spellers.”  
  
“Well, tell Baytart how to spell it next time you see him.”   Tom corrects the spelling with a flourish.  “He’s just down the hall.”  
  
  
He has to go down to Engineering the next day because B’Elanna wants his help installing some new whatever-it-is in a Jefferies tube.     
  
“So how are the kids?”  she asks.  
  
“Growing horribly.   Shannon can spell better than the beta shift conn officer now.   You do not spell nebula with two ‘b’s.”   He sighs.   “Owen wants piloting lessons for his birthday.”  
  
“I bet you’re pleased about that.”  
  
“You have absolutely _no idea_.”   Tom is grinning.    “Shannon wants to learn to make her own holoprogram, I can teach her the basics, she’s pretty smart.    And Julia … Julia …”   Tom sighs.   “Julia wants something complicated.”  
  
“She’s your shy one, right?”  
  
“Yeah, she had a bit of trouble coming around at first.  But she’s turning into a real little princess now.  She wantts two things.   A real live kitty cat - “  
  
“Oh, _not good_.”  
  
“And she wants me and Harry to get married.”  
  
She gives him one of those smirking smiles.     
  
“What?”  
  
“Out of the mouths of babes, isn’t that the saying?”  
  
“B’Elanna, I’m not really the ‘getting married’ type.”  
  
“Is that really true, or is it just something you like to tell yourself?   I mean, Tom, you and Harry are raising three kids together.   Why not get married?   It’s fun.”  
  
“Of course you’d say so.”   She’d been _insufferable_ ever since getting together with Chakotay last year.     
  
“Well, then, think about _this_.  A week of shore leave where no one bothers you and Kathryn watches the kids.   It’ll be hysterical.   I’ll get _video_ for you.  I’ll even make sure _Tuvok_ babysits.”  
  
“Tuvok’s _great_ with kids.  He _has_ kids.”  
  
“Yes, with _Vulcan_ kids.   Not _highly evolved former lizard_ kids that run around and get into stuff and ask a lot of questions.”   B’Elanna grinned evilly.  “I want _documentation_ of that.”  
  
Not a bad idea, Tom thought to himself.  
  
  
So now Tom had to ask Harry.   _That_ was the complicated part.   Fortunately he had B’Elanna in his corner, which meant he had Chakotay in his corner (he guessed that was okay) and that meant he had babysitting, at least.   So he booked the holodeck for tomorrow evening and got B’Elanna to babysit the little terrors and tried not to feel too ridiculously nervous, which was a _laugh_.     
  
Harry noticed his nervousness at lunch.   “You okay?”  
  
“Sure, I’m fine.   This is just awful.”   It was actually pretty damn awful, that was the truth.    It was some sort of pasty red stuff with a kind of orange lacey crunchy topping that was trying to be cheese and tasted like everything that wasn’t cheese.   It was more the texture of a soggy pretzel.  
  
“Most of the things in here are, but you usually aren’t like this.”  
  
“I’m fine, Harry.   _Really_.”  
  
Harry shrugs.   “Did you give back Baytart his corrected report?”  
  
“No.   But I’m thinking about it.   With a grade of C+ for grammar and spelling, see professor after class.   How he got through the Academy, I have no idea.”  
  
“Spellcheck, obviously.   Grammar check.”  
  
“Must have.  So  … we have holodeck time tonight!”  
  
“Ooh.”   Harry grinned across the table.   “Any plans?   New Proton chapter?   Who’s watching the kids?”  
  
“B’Elanna offered herself as a sacrifice for the evening, and yes, I do have plans.  But you will find out tonight what they are.”     
  
Now all Tom has to do is think up some plans.     
  
During his conn shift, he thinks about all the good movie proposals.   They all seem stupid and corny and _ridiculous_.   So does every single one of his holoprograms, now.   Great.   He’s completely _lost_ for plans and he has two hours of holodeck time he has no idea what to do with now, and everything he thinks up sounds like a stupid _line_.     
  
And he doesn’t want to talk to someone else, because the rumor mill on this ship is _nasty_ and every conversation is monitored.   Probably, as they used to say on old recordings, for quality control.  
  
Whose quality it was, and who was controlling it, Tom had his suspicions.     
  
Probably Q.  
  
Suddenly he was popped out of existence and into the middle of space.   Q was there, looking after a small child that looked very much like him.   The smaller Q was playing with asteroids.  
  
“Helmboy.”   Q says amiably.      
  
“Q.”   Tom is surprised.   “You’ve … found someone to procreate with.”  
  
“Yes!   This is Q.  Isn’t he adorable?”  
  
“Looks just like his dad.”   Tom says truthfully.    “What am I doing here?”  
  
“Well, I was going to thank you for introducing me to children!   They’re wonderful, as long as they don’t do that expelling-partly-digested food thing.   Q doesn’t do that, you know.”  
  
“Well, that’s … great.”   Tom says.     
  
“Back you go now.   Say hi to Kathy.”   And he snaps his fingers.     
  
He’s at the end of his shift, and he still has no idea what he’s doing.  
  
Baytart comes up to him.     
  
“You don’t spell nebula with two ‘b’s.”   Tom says as he gets out of the chair.  
  
“What?”  Pablo says, utterly confused now.  
  
“Never mind.”    
  
  
On his way to the holodeck, he comes up with something that’s okay.   Not brilliant, but okay.   Corny, and probably stupid, but the best he can do on thirty seconds’ notice.  
  
Well, at least it wasn’t a fucking _gazebo_.   His father proposed to his mother in a gazebo, and he was sick and damn tired of hearing that story.   He’d been sick of it years before he’d been disowned.   Never mind now.    
  
So it’s a beach.   Utterly corny, he thinks.  
  
He forgets, temporarily, that Harry _likes_ corny stuff.  
  
“Where’s this?”   Harry asks, looking pleased.  
  
“Bondi Beach.”   he says, looking at his bare toes as the salt water breaks over them.   “Used to live not too far from here, actually.   You can surf those waves.”   He nods at the ones breaking over the point.  
  
“Is that what we’re doing tonight?   Surfing?  I’ve never tried it.”  
  
“Maybe in a bit.   Thought we’d take a walk first.”  
  
They walk down the beach, through the waves.      
  
“Harry?”   Tom says suddenly.   No time like the present.  
  
“Hmm?”   He’s looking out to sea, at the waves rolling in.  
  
“Want to get married?”  
  
Harry blinks.    “Sorry, what?”  
  
“Do you want -“  
  
“Did you just propose?”  
  
“Uh.”   Tom stares at his feet again.   “Yeah.   I sort of did.   I mean, we can, we don’t have to if you don’t -“  
  
“Yes.”   Harry interrupts him, and grabs his chin and kisses him.   Soft, just gentle and sweet.   Looking right into his eyes.   Smiling.   The kiss says ‘yes’ more than the word does.     
  
“Let’s go home.”   Harry says, taking his hand.   “We’ve got an hour and a half before the kids get back.”  
  
Tom grins.   “Yeah.”     
  
  
The next morning, Tom wakes up to _meowing._  
  
He looks up.   There is a grey kitten sitting on him, with a red bow around its neck.     
  
And a note.  
  
_You were looking for a real live kitty cat.   I figured it was the least I could do._  
  
_Q_  
  
Tom grins, and snuggles back up beside Harry.   The kitten lies down elaborately on the pillow beside his head and purrs in his ear.  
  



	2. Epilogue:  Tuvok Watching The Kids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drink your milk. :)

  
“Whatcha readin’?”  
  
Tuvok looked up from his padd.   Shannon was peering directly into his face.    
  
“I am reading a treatise on Vulcan logic written by the philosopher Sarek.”   he replies.  
  
“Sounds _boring_.  Daddy said we could have cookies now.”  
  
“Your father is on vacation and did not indicate you could have cookies at this time.”     
  
“He did so!”   Julia says from the middle of the floor.    She appears to be stacking random objects she’d found in Tuvok’s quarters.   He got up and took a few of the more fragile things away.     
  
“I do not believe he did.”  
  
“Hawwy always wets us have cookies, Mister Vuwcan.”    Owen says, staring up at him like a miniature, lisping version of his father.   “Pwease?”  
  
Tuvok sighed deeply and thought about how much longer he was going to watch these children.   It felt like hours.  
  
“Cookies, then.”   He nods.   “But you shall drink milk with them.”  
  
They all nod solemnly, importantly.  
  
“What’s that for?”   Shannon points at the kal-toh game.   “Is that like pick-up-sticks?”  
  
“No, it is a Vulcan game called kal-toh.”  
  
“How come you don’t got any toys?”   Julia asked him.   “Do you got any kids?”  
  
“I do.  I have three sons and a daughter.   But they are not here with me.”  
  
“Why not?”  
  
Tuvok looked at the children and sighed again.   “Drink your milk.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. :)


End file.
